Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Hiếm thịt ăn cá, thừa giấy vẽ voi

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To be unable to accomplish something due to lack of resources

Literally: Rare meat eat fish, excess paper draw elephant

Examples

Gia đình tôi hiếm thịt ăn cá, thừa giấy vẽ voi khi muốn xây nhà mớiMy family is unable to build a new house because we lack the necessary resources

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Headword listed in the vdict.com proverb dictionary index (discovery source; headword only — no source content copied). Entered as candidate 2026-08-05; definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-06; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “Hiếm thịt ăn cá, thừa giấy vẽ voi” mean?

To be unable to accomplish something due to lack of resources Literally: Rare meat eat fish, excess paper draw elephant

Is “Hiếm thịt ăn cá, thừa giấy vẽ voi” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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